Over 50 Students, Teachers Injured in Wasp Attack at Kilinochchi School Despite Prior Warning

Over 50 Students, Teachers Injured in Wasp Attack at Kilinochchi School Despite Prior Warning

More than 50 students and teachers were injured on Wednesday morning after wasps from a nest on the premises of Kilinochchi Maha Vidyalayam attacked students and staff, triggering panic across the school. At least 39 students were admitted to hospital for treatment, while the deputy principal and two teachers were also hospitalised. According to eyewitness accounts, students fled classrooms in fear, abandoning their school bags and learning materials as they attempted to shield themselves from
February 2026 Monitor Memo
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
This is Our Soil. And No One Can Take It From Us.

This is Our Soil. And No One Can Take It From Us.

Note: This editorial was originally published in the February 2025 issue of Jaffna Monitor to mark Sri Lanka’s 77th Independence Day. It is reproduced on the occasion of the 78th Independence Day. February 4th, Sri Lanka’s Independence Day, is a day of both celebration and contention. As the nation marked 77 years of sovereignty, some Tamils—whose lands remain militarily occupied and whose sons and daughters have vanished without a trace—chose to observe the day with symbolic defiance. For them
Editorial February 2026
Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran
Sumanthiran-Aligned Shanakiyan Named ITAK Parliamentary Group Leader

Sumanthiran-Aligned Shanakiyan Named ITAK Parliamentary Group Leader

The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) has appointed Batticaloa District MP Shanakiyan Ragul Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam as its new Parliamentary Group Leader, removing senior Jaffna legislator Sivagnanam Sritharan in a leadership overhaul that has exposed deepening factional divisions within Sri Lanka's main Tamil political party. The appointment of the 35-year-old Shanakiyan, widely regarded as a close ally of Acting General Secretary M. A. Sumanthiran, comes after weeks of internal discord ove
February 2026 Monitor Memo
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
‘This Is Apartheid’: Mano Ganesan Calls for UN Intervention in Cyclone Relief

‘This Is Apartheid’: Mano Ganesan Calls for UN Intervention in Cyclone Relief

Tamil Progressive Alliance leader Mano Ganesan has appealed to the United Nations to intervene in what he characterised as the systematic exclusion of Hill Country plantation communities from Sri Lanka's post-disaster reconstruction programme following Cyclone Dithwa. In a meeting with UN Resident Coordinator Marc-André Franche at the UN office in Colombo, Mano Ganesan said the government's Rebuilding Sri Lanka housing scheme had failed to include plantation families displaced by the December c
January 2026 Monitor Memo
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
Tamil Leaders Accuse Government of Building Parallel Power Structure Through Praja Shakthi

Tamil Leaders Accuse Government of Building Parallel Power Structure Through Praja Shakthi

A government-backed community mobilisation programme has emerged as a political flashpoint in Sri Lanka's Northern and Eastern Provinces, with elected officials, political parties, and civil society groups warning that the initiative undermines constitutional governance and threatens to erode Tamil political representation at the grassroots level. The Praja Shakthi (People's Power) programme, launched by the National People's Power (NPP) government and presented as a poverty alleviation initiat
Article January 2026
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
“Balasingham Saw the End — Prabhakaran Believed He Was Invincible”: G. L. Peiris on Sri Lanka’s Failed Peace Process

“Balasingham Saw the End — Prabhakaran Believed He Was Invincible”: G. L. Peiris on Sri Lanka’s Failed Peace Process

G. L. Peiris was at the epicentre of Sri Lanka’s peace negotiations with the LTTE and occupied senior office under three successive governments during one of the most consequential phases of the conflict. In his new book, The Sri Lanka Peace Process: An Inside View, he revisits that period with the benefit of temporal distance and retrospective clarity. In this interview with Jaffna Monitor, Peiris confronts the charge that his narrative assumes the posture of a detached observer and explains w
Exclusive Interview January 2026
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
Holy Support for a Controversial Cause: Clergy Back ‘Black Day’ Protest

Holy Support for a Controversial Cause: Clergy Back ‘Black Day’ Protest

Senior religious figures from the Tamil community have now lent their moral weight to a controversial and arguably ill-judged plan by Jaffna University students to observe Sri Lanka’s Independence Day on February 4 as a “Black Day” in the Northern and Eastern provinces. The Jaffna University Students’ Union has announced that it will stage demonstrations and mark February 4 — Sri Lanka’s Independence Day — as a Black Day and a day of protest. In preparation, student representatives recently pai
January 2026 Monitor Memo
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
Gajendrakumar Rejects ITAK’s Right to Lead Kivul Oya Protest

Gajendrakumar Rejects ITAK’s Right to Lead Kivul Oya Protest

Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) President and Jaffna MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has declared that the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) has no moral authority to lead protests against the government's Kivul Oya irrigation project, accusing the party of having previously facilitated the Sinhalisation of Tamil areas. Addressing a press conference in Jaffna, Ponnambalam argued that civil society organisations, rather than ITAK, should take the lead in organising resistance to the controver
January 2026 Monitor Memo
Our Reporter

Our Reporter